Page 88 - DLIS103_LIBRARY_CLASSIFICATION_AND_CATALOGUING_THEORY

Unit 13: Subject Cataloguing

Orne's insistence that subject cataloguing is really indexing has already been noted. While this Notes
may be a valid generalization, it may also be a deterrent to the determination of true catalogue
function. For just as the subject catalogue is relatively inefficient in comparison with subject
bibliography in assembling all of the materials which deal with a particular subject, neither does
it compete with the subject index in isolating units of information which relate to a topic, unless its
scope is expanded far beyond what seems presently to be practicable. There is need to recognize
different levels of subject control, and within the hierarchy the bibliography serves one purpose,
the subject catalogue another, and the subject index still a third. This distinction in purpose implies
that we cannot substitute the bibliography for the catalogue, however attractive that possibility may
seem. A corollary is obvious-neither can we substitute the catalogue for the bibliography, for to do
so will obscure its real function and reduce its efficiency. But the need to identify units of information
is particularly acute in a society which has come to be dependent upon scientific and technical
research, Science and technology require this, as is evident from the variety of indexing and abstracting
services which have been developed to serve workers in these subject fields. S. V. Larkey has
observed that Chemical Abstracts attempts to provide a subject entry for every important topic
considered in each article it indexes. During and since World War II, the need to isolate specific units
of information has been felt more acutely than ever before, and the frustrating experiences of
workers in scientific and technological disciplines has led to an insistence that subject controls be
improved. In recent years there have been various attempts to develop techniques for subject analysis
which will be competent to isolate minute topics, yet capable of easy manipulation in order to
relocate units of information surely and economically when they are needed.
One phase of this development has been the proliferation of special lists of headings designed to
reveal the subject content of the technical report literature which has been a by-product of the war
and of continued governmental support to applied research projects. Another has been the attempts
to exploit a variety of mechanical, electronic, and photographic machines and gadgets, in the hope
that they might speed up the process of locating and identifying relevant units of information.
This latter, in turn, has led to a renewed interest in systems of classification, for there was early
recognition of the need for a competent code to organize information so that automatic subject
searches might be made mechanically or electrically. Ralph R. Shaw has described and assessed the
place of machine techniques in subject bibliography. It is now apparent that while mechanized
methods of one kind or another have a legitimate place in subject analysis in its broadest sense,
they do not appear to offer any direct assistance in solving the problems of the subject catalogue.
And there seems also to be a general awareness that the limitations of the subject catalogue
prevent its becoming an efficient device for identifying and locating units of information.

There is another aspect to this introduction of machine techniques in subject analysis which must
be mentioned, lest such techniques become confused with the purposes of the subject catalogue
and postpone further the definition of its true function. J. W. Perry has observed that human
understanding of phenomena and events is based upon analysis in terms of who and what
participated, what happened under what conditions, and with what results. Thus any device intended
to facilitate understanding and we may accept the subject catalogue as one-must attempt to show
interrelationships among the concepts and ideas with which it operates. It will be evident that
subject headings do this, for almost any one which consists of more than a single term shows some
relation, as, for example, “Radioisotopes-Physiological Effect.” The relationship here suggested is
a more specific concept than "Radioisotopes" alone. Mortimer Taube has shown how the introduction
of a second subdivision, thereby refining the expression of relation, may produce a still more
specific concept; thus “Liver- Radiation Injuries-Gamma Rays” is more specific than the combination
of two separate subject entries: “Liver-Radiation Injuries,” and “Gamma Rays-Pathological Effects.”
Without laboring the argument, however, it will be realized that there are limits beyond which
the subject catalogue cannot express complex relations directly and intelligibly, since the high

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